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GEORGE LAMMING has achieved what few in this country would have thought possible. His novel In the Castle of my Skin elevates our common speech to poetry and our common lives to literature, infusing it all with a gentle humour that allows the reader to “laugh off the licks.” It is a bildungsroman in the usual style, the story of a boy becoming a man, but companioned with the story of a people moving from infancy and dependence to maturity and self-determination.

THE CULTURAL CRITIC Imran Siddiquee, writing for The Atlantic, once commented, “If the United States were to truly transform into a totalitarian state, or suffer an environmental catastrophe, it's safe to say society’s deepest divisions wouldn't magically disappear overnight.” For the US, race would certainly be among those "deepest divisions." And yet YA dystopian fiction, even of the American variety, often appears to exist in a racial vacuum.

The peculiar dichotomy that is evident in Anatomy of a Scream (Pudding House Press, 30pp, 2007) suggests there is a beauty and redemption in the inevitable sufferings and tribulations that are seemingly our birthright. The work as a whole is modern and edgy, and typifies a pre-apocalyptic view of humanity as it tethers on the brink of sanity.

What Robert Edison Sandiford gives us in his latest short story collection, Fairfield, is the apparent restoration and enhancement of stories that were bound and concealed in a stationery box belonging to a deceased Barbadian-born author. Sandiford brings thirteen of these “Last Sad Stories of G. Brandon Sisnett” (the collection’s subtitle) to us in a seemingly random way which propels us to create an order out of seeming disorder.

The IndyList, as we like to call it, is a selection of 12 Barbadian books to make friends with over the coming year.

The list, which first appeared in 2011, is part of the Editors' ongoing "Mapping Our Literature" mission, which promotes awareness of and celebrates Barbadian books and authors. Each year, we recommend new, classic and noteworthy titles in fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and children’s literature.

On January 9, the Barbadian writer won the 2015 Frank Collymore Literary Award for her novel manuscript The Economist.

She had previously been shortlisted in 2010, earning Joint 2nd Prize with Glenville Lovell (there was no top winner that year) and in 2012, when another manuscript of hers won the Prime Minister's Award.

This time, she alone held the coveted Colly—Barbados' most lucrative literary prize.

LISTEN OUT for a new and stimulating Barbadian radio show this January.

What's That You're Reading? will be airing on Q100.7 on Wednesdays at 1:30pm and repeated on Saturdays at 5:30pm.

Organized by Writers Ink Inc., with author and broadcaster Philip Nanton as its main host and members of Writers Ink as guest hosts, the show's main objective is to highlight Barbadian and other Caribbean writers as well as encourage more reading among the wider public.

KWAME SLUSHER, a young freelance journalist currently residing in Australia, is the winner of The Carolle Bourne Award for Literary Innovation for 2015.

Slusher took the award for his short story “How to Draw Her,” which plays with perceptions of art, desire and relationships.

His mother and brother accepted his trophy, an original creation by Jamal Ifill of Crystal Forms, and a cheque for $500.00 on his behalf at the National Cultural Foundation's West Terrace office in early December.

For the fifth year running, ArtsEtc is pleased to bring its annual Independence Reading List. The IndyList, as we like to call it, is a selection of 12 Barbadian books to make friends with over the coming year.